tribesofsinai2024

Discipleship of believers here in the Sinai seems incredibly complex. People not only fear Islam, the secret police, their family, friends, and neighbours but also ever-present evil entities. On top of that people are struggling with early childhood traumas, family breakdown, dependency issues, substance abuse, trauma, depression, and mental sicknesses, to name a few. Then there are the daily challenges of finding work, food, accommodation etc. 

Through such crises, the people of Sinai’s faith is being tested and refined through the fire. Daily each has to decide whether to stagnate, go back, or push into the LORD and overcome. 

Through the golden calf crisis, Moses pushed into the LORD and came out stronger than he went in. After the backsliding and broken covenant, Moses wrestled with the LORD to regain the assurance that he had found favour and that the LORD would personally lead the Israelites into the land he had prepared for them. As a by-product of the process his face shone. 

Wow! 

So why do we now have to endure so many chapters on the tedious details of the tabernacle’s design, construction, and assembly? 

The author must have intended this to be the climax of the whole story. That the LORD himself would first deliver his people from bondage, then make his covenant from Mount Sinai, and finally come to dwell in the midst of his people. Surely this is the whole purpose of this epic drama. 

Have you noticed the constant refrain ‘’exactly as the LORD commanded Moses?’’ At last the people of God are learning to hear and obey precisely what the LORD commanded them. Peace reigns in the camp as the people faithfully do what they are intended to do. 

We are however given insight to a glorious finale. 

Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Moses could not enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.

What is more, this glorious filling of the Tabernacle was not just a one-off event but an abiding presence who moved with the Israelites. 

In all the travels of the Israelites, whenever the cloud lifted from above the tabernacle, they would set out; but if the cloud did not lift, they did not set out—until the day it lifted. So the cloud of the Lord was over the tabernacle by day, and fire was in the cloud by night, in the sight of all the Israelites during all their travels.^[1]

Reflection 

What do you love most about the LORD? 

Why not tell him?! 

Prayer 

Father, we often take it for granted, but we want to say we are so grateful that you have made a way for us to be reconciled to you and that you have promised to never leave or forsake us. 

Thank you for the faith of Moses who was able to face and overcome non stop challenges against impossible odds because he trusted and obeyed you. 

You are the LORD of the Sinai and the LORD of the harvest. We pray that you may continue to lead men, women, the young, the elderly, the broken, the oppressed, the isolated and the infirm into your saving presence in the Sinai. 

May the tribes in the Sinai learn to discern your presence and relate with you face to face. May their faces reflect your glory. 

^[1] Exodus 40:34-38.